Germany Helps Developing Countries Meet Sanitary Standards

A €300,000 donation will help developing nations meet international demands, opening up foreign markets.

Oct 26, 2006

Germany has contributed €300,000 to the Standards and Trade Development Facility in order to help developing nations improve their compliance with international sanitary and phytosanitary standards. Meeting these standards would open up foreign import and export markets for the developing countries.

The funding will be disbursed in two equal parts this year and next, and will go towards developing the expertise and capacity of these countries to improve their sanitary standards.

"Compliance with international standards is a major step in both securing market access and in applying WTO rules in the SPS area. This is why I welcome today this donation from Germany . The technical and scientific complexity of the SPS area are such that I support any and all efforts to facilitate compliance by Members, in particular developing and least developed Members" says WTO Director General Pascal Lamy.

Germany becomes the tenth WTO member to give funds to the STDF with the donation. The STDF approved projects on a review of sanitary and phytosanitary compliance for the Caribbean , Central and South America and a survey of phytosanitary control capacity for South Pacific island nations at the organization's Oct. 15-16 meeting.